A data communications device interconnected for channelized communication overcomes the problems associated with message traffic starvation on outgoing traffic channels by forming arbitration, or speed groups of logical interfaces and allocating scheduling resources in proportion to the bandwidth attributed to each group relative to the total bandwidth of the device. Incoming messages have a transmission rate based on QOS, content type, or other constraints. A categorizer determines arbitration groups of the outgoing messages based on the transmission rate of the message. The scheduler allocates dequeue requests among the groups according to the proportion allocated to the arbitration group. A dequeue manager drains the outgoing messages from the arbitration groups at a rate in proportion to the total percentage of outgoing transmission bandwidth represented by the group by selecting a message from among the arbitration groups according to the computed proportion.